Orville Wright along with his older brother Wilbur are credited with inventing and building the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903.

In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their invention into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible. On August 19, 1940 – The new Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license #1 to Orville Wright.

Orville Wright’s famous first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, December 17, 1903.